WATCHPRO first reported on London-based fractional ownership start-up Koia in the summer of last year when the business was in a pre-trading period.
Its intention was already clear: to help people invest in watches by dividing up the value of single or bundles of watches and selling fractional ownership tokens of the items.
More importantly, Koia wanted to make this process possible through a simple user-friendly app.
That vision is a step closer to reality with news this week that Koia has secured $1.4 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Seedcamp.
Other participants in the round include RTP Global, Portfolio Ventures and a number of angels.
The new investors are joining Koia’s earlier backers, who include co-founders of Monzo and Freetrade.
“Our mission is to make alternative assets accessible to anyone, via fractional ownership, and allow anyone to invest in assets they understand and are truly passionate about. We aim to break down barriers of entry and let anyone own a piece of an iconic asset previously only accessible to the wealthiest 1%. We’re launching with collectibles like watches, fine wine and Pokémon Cards with a vision to ultimately be able to fractionalise any kind of physical or digital asset,” the company states.
Koia was founded by Richard Draper, Iris ten Teije and Ben Riazy, who have spent their careers across traditional financial services firms and fintech startups.
The team believes that the democratisation of financial services has only just begun and that by leveraging for example blockchain and DeFi there will be opportunities to provide access to new, engaging and financially rewarding asset classes.
“We want to enable a fractional economy and open up access to opportunities previously only accessible to the ultra-wealthy. We want to make buying and selling a fraction of a Rolex, as fast and frictionless as buying a fractional share in your favorite company.” says Koia co-founder Iris ten Teije.
